Friday, November 19, 2010

I have been painting quite a bit lately. Getting into the gallery in Hawi has inspired me. I also discovered a website of artists committed to painting a painting a day, thought that was quite ambitious... figured I could at least try to paint a few paintings per week. I've been painting hibicus flowers, mainly because we have many plants around the house and they all seem to be blooming.
First I started with white. Fun to paint, lots of veins and crinkles and shades of white...

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Ryan did a great job yesterday competing in the 70.3 1/2 Ironman World Championships. It's a triathlon consisting of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. He qualified for the World Championships last June at the Kona Honu 1/2 Ironman. His sister Kipp, brother-in-law Andrew and friend Katie all flew with him to Florida to cheer him on. They must have done a good job...he finished 9th in his age group, 91st overall (out of 1,600)!!! He was pleased with his performance...yeah Ryan. Kipp made GREAT shirts for the cheering section. These photos are from her iPhone...so not the best, but you'll see what a good job she did. Let's hear it for freezer paper...

Saturday, November 13, 2010

I needed a bunch of stationery in a hurry...this is easy, fast and I usually have all the materials on hand.
I use pre-cut Hawaiian quilt stencils, acrylic paint, a sponge brush and pre-cut/pre scored notecards.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Well...I have finished pine needle basket number 2. I have to say, they're really fun to make, sort of mindless work done while watching tv. Remember my first attempt? Pretty awful, I knew I could improve upon it. I thought the Hawaiian pine needles would work, but they turned out to be very brittle and broke easily. I had to wait until Chris came back from the mainland and could bring more needles from Ryan's house. I guess that is better anyway since I wanted this to be a housewarming present for his "newly remodeled" place and the basket would mean more made from his very own pine trees.

Friday, November 5, 2010

I discovered a new fabric store in Kona...unbelievable selection of Hawaiian fabric (and you can purchase online). I couldn't resist these and have been making more quilted purses like this one from a previous post.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Okay...there are a lot of these cute things sailing in the blogosphere (see examples) here, here, and here but someone asked me to make a tutorial on how I made mine, so here goes. First, find a piece of driftwood that gives the impression of a boat hull, and a stick long enough to make a mast proportional to the hull.

Monday, November 1, 2010

I saw the coolest driftwood sailboat on the super cute blog Completely Coastal and here and knew I just had to make one. We have tons of kiavi trees here in Kohala Ranch and they're forever losing branches in the wind. On my morning walks I usually look for pieces that might make interesting projects. Yesterday I found a piece I knew would make a great boat!!! It was really simple, I just drilled a hole in the branch, glued in the "mast", made little sails out of unbleached muslin and "rigged" them to the mast. It turned out pretty fun, not sure if it will live in Ryan's room or on the bookshelf.

About Me

married, 2 grown children (both married) 3 beautiful grandsons I paint (watercolors and oils) have been a printmaker since high school (forever) and since I sew I also enjoy dyeing and printing fabric. In short, I'll try any sort of project